The Georgian-born German violinist Lisa Batiashvili is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.
In 2021, Lisa Batiashvili fulfilled her lifelong dream by establishing the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, through which she is dedicated to supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers.
At the beginning of the 2026/27 season, Lisa Batiashvili will open the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia with the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. She will then bring a piece of Georgia to Germany, where she will present a variety of programmes and artists as part of a residency at the Beethovenfest Bonn and in the ‘Georgian Spotlights’ series at the Dresden Philharmonic. Moreover, she will bring her very own story to the stage in the programme City Lights – Follow Your Dreams, combining live performance with video art.
In addition, she will be on tour with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä, as well as with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Further engagements will take her, among others, to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, she can be seen on tour in North America as part of a piano trio with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon, and in Europe as part of a duo with Giorgi Gigashvili.
Her impressive discography includes Visions of Prokofiev with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin which won the Opus Klassik Award 2018 and was nominated for the Gramophone Awards 2018. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann, and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2022, the album Secret Love Letters with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra was released.
Batiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No.1 as well as Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello with Gautier Capuçon and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Christian Thielemann.
As a violinist, Lisa Batiashvili has received numerous accolades, including the International Prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in 2009, Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, and Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017.
Furthermore, in 2024 she was honoured with the European Cultural Award for her outstanding musical achievements and her commitment to supporting young musical talent in her native Georgia. In 2025, she received the Kaiser Otto Prize from the City of Magdeburg in recognition of her commitment to opposing war, her political engagement and her promotion of the European idea, as well as the ‘Pro Meritis Scientiae et Litterarum’ from the Bavarian State Ministry. From the ceremony: "She is an artist with conviction: With her clear political stance, especially against the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, and her commitment to democracy, she is a true role model.“ From 2019 to 2022, she served as Artistic Director of the Audi Sommerkonzerte in Ingolstadt.
In 2018, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. In October 2026, she will take up a professorship at the University Mozarteum Salzburg.
Lisa Batiashvili lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesù” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector in Germany. For selected projects, she plays a violin by Philipp Augustin, a copy of her “del Gesù” made for her in 2026.